Air purifying and circulating device



Jan. ,11; 1955 Filed Nov. 6, 1952 H. DANINHIRSQH 2,699,287

AIR PURIFYING AND CIRCULATING :DEVICE IN VEN TOR. Y 44.99;/ )dn/Hm rcl/ BY f Jan. 11, 1955 HLDANINHIRSCH 1 A2,699,287 AIR PURIFYING AND CIRCULATING nEvIpz Filed Nov. -es, 1952 :3 Sheets-sheet' 2 l N VEN TOR.

` /m/v DIMM/msc# United States Patent O AIR PURIFYING AND CIRCULATING DEVICE Harry Daninhirsch, Danbury, Conn., assignor to W. B.

Connor Engineering Corp., Danbury, Conn., a corporation of New York Application November 6, 1952, Serial No. 319,060

1 Claim. (Cl. 2230-114) This invention relates to air purifying and circulating devices and is concerned more especially with such devices as are particularly adapted for use in connection with large refrigerator cabinets or walk-in boxes, such as are employed in hotels, restaurants, butcher shops, hospitals and the like; small toilet rooms, or in any other environment where air purification and circulation is required. An example of the type of device to which the present invention relates will be found in the copending application of George S. Dauphinee, Serial No. 106,472, filed luly 23, 1949, now Patent No. 2,640,558, issued June 2l, 1953, upon which the present invention is an improvement.

Since a large variety of types of foods is usually stored in refrigerated cabinets of the character indicated, objectionable cross-transference of odors and flavors will normally occur unless particular care is exercised to provide airtight packaging and segragation of the potentially offensive food particles. Such segregation and packaging is troublesome, time-consuming and expensive. Furthermore, recent research indicates that when the air within such refrigerated cabinets is maintained at a low concentration with respect to deleterious adulterant gases, the storage life of the food products is greatly prolonged and odor or flavor transference is not perceptible even without segregation of the food products or special packaging.

It is therefore one of the objects of the invention to provide a device for effectively adsorbing odors and circulating air in a refrigerated enclosure of the type indicated. It is another object of the invention to provide an airpurifying device of this kind which can be used in all kinds of small enclosures for the adsorption and circulation of air within the same.

Another object of the invention is the provision of an air purifying and circulating device which is designed and constructed in such a manner as not to require an enclosing housing or cabinet; in which the renewable elements of the device may be readily changed when required and which device may be fabricated as an extremely simple and compact unit at low cost.

The foregoing objects as well as additional objects and advantages of the invention will be readily understood in the course of the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention, and wherein Fig. 1 is an elevational view, partly in section, of an air purifying and circulating device embodying the features of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a top plan view, with parts in section, to illustrate the manner in which the carbon canisters are mounted in the cover plate of the air manifold housing; and

Fig. 3 is an end elevation of the device taken on the discharge or blower side, or on the left of Fig. 2.

Referring now to the drawings in greater detail, the device includes a blower assembly generally designated by reference numeral 50 which may be adjustable for varying the direction of air discharge, as will be more fully described below. Blower assembly 50 is operatively assoicated with an air purification unit 51 which may conveniently take the form of a plurality of doublewalled canisters 52 containing suitable adsorbent material, such as granular activated carbon 53.

A motor 54 is mounted in any suitable manner on the blower housing 55 for powering the blower fan 56 in Order to discharge purified air through the blower outlet duct 57. As previously stated, it may be found desirable to mount the blower housing 55 on the wall 58 of the air manifold housing 59, and for this purpose the blower housing is provided with a dished ring 60 secured to it in any preferred manner as by means of welding. The ring 60 thus provides a circular track or channel for the wall 58 which is provided with a suitably dimensioned central aperture 61 defining an air inlet to the blower housing 55. By reason of the described arrangement, the blower assembly 50 may be rotated to discharge air in any direction, and the blower housing will be retained in any adjusted position by means of frictional engagement between the dished ring 60 and the wall 58 around the opening therein, or if desired, additional retaining means may be employed to hold the blower assembly in any selected position. An air deflector is also employed adjacent to the air-outlet opening 57, said deflector consisting of a disk 62, secured on a threaded stem 63 which is adjustably received in a guide 64 extending across the outlet opening 57.

The air purification unit 51, including the carbon canisters 52, is secured to a closure plate 65 which tits over and closes one side of the box-like air manifold housing 59. The manifold closure plate 65 is provided with mounting apertures 66 in which the ends of the carbon canisters 52 fit and in which the same are frictionally or otherwise securely held in place. Each of the canisters is provided at its inner end with an annular closure flange 67 which seats in the aperture 66 and the outer end of each canister is completely closed by a cap 68 seated on a flange 69.

The closure plate 65, carrying the two canisters 52, is held in position to close one side of the manifold housing 59, by having one of its edges extended under an inturned flange 70 on the wall 71 of the manifold (see Fig. 2). An inwardly extended lip 72, formed out of the wall 71 maintains the closure plate 65 between it and the inturned flange 70. At its opposite edge, the closure plate is flanged as shown at 73 to fit over the opposite side wall 74 of the manifold. The bolts 75, extending through the closure plate 65 as well as through the wall 58 of the manifold, securely hold the closure plate 65, carrying the canisters 52, in place on the manifold.

Thus, when the blower fan 56 is in operation, odorladen air is drawn from the atmosphere surrounding the canisters 52, first passing through the perforated outer wall 31, then through the activated carbon 53 or other adsorbent material, and then through the perforated inner wall 32 of each ofthe canisters, whereupon the objectionable odoriferous adulterants are removed and the purified air passes into the manifold housing 59. The purified air then passes into the blower housing 55 by way of the air inlet opening 61 in the wall 58 of the manifold housing, to be finally discharged from the device in a directed stream through the blower outlet duct 57 under the influence of the blower fan 56 to impinge against the adjustable deflector 62 and be directed thereby accordingly.

The device may be easily mounted at any convenient space on the wall or ceiling of the refrigerated cabinet or Within any enclosure by means of the perforated hanger lugs 38 which may be secured to or formed as a part of the manifold housing 65 in any desired manner. Thus only two screws or other fastening elements eX- tended through the lugs 38 are required to secure the device in place, and the device may be easily removed for inspection when desired. The removal of the: canisters is easily done by either withdrawing them out of the apertures 66 in the closure plate 65, or else by removing the plate 65 with the canisters attached. This is easily done by taking out the bolts 75, whereupon the plate 65 and the canisters can be removed from the device as a unit.

The design and construction of the present .invention makes possible a device characterized by extreme simplicity, compactness and adaptability to varying requirements. Since certain modifications may be made in the device of the present invention without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the foregoing description and shown in the accompanying drawings, be interpreted as merely illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having described my invention, what I claim is:

In an air-purifying and circulating device, a box-like air manifold having a rear wall formed with an outlet opening, a blower housing attached to said rear wall and in communication with the outlet opening, said blower housing having an outlet, a deector adjustably mounted over the blower housing outlet, the manifold having a removable closure plate constituting a wall of said manifold housing, said plate being spaced from the rear wall, the closure plate having a flanged edge engaging a side wall on the air manifold, the air manifold having another side wall formed with an inturned flange, said wall also having a lip spaced from the flange, the closure plate hav- 15 ing an edge fitted between said ange and lip, and bolts extending through the closure plate and through the rear wall for securing the closure plate on the air manifold.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 183,365 Birch Oct. 17, 1876 1,774,141 Hills Aug. 26, 1930 2,076,066 Clay Apr. 6, 1937 2,640,558 Dauphinee June 2, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 127,097 Germany Aug. 1, 1928 

